Levine

Question 1

Background

Answer 1

Previous research has found that people in urban areas tend to be less helpful than those in rural settings. Most of these studies have focused on population size: suggesting that larger cities tend to be less helpful

Question 2

Aims

Answer 2

• To see if tendency to offer help is stable across different helping situations
• To see if cultures vary in levels of help offered to people in need
• To identify characteristics of cultures where strangers are more or less likely to be helped

Question 3

Procedure

Locations

Answer 3

Data was collected in 23 cities (all had populations of 230,000), across 5 different continents. The city was either the largest city in that country or another major city

Question 4

Procedure

Research Confederates

Answer 4

In most cities, one local individual – most often a student returning home for summer vacation – collected all the data. All experimenters were male, college age, and dressed neatly and casually

Question 5

Procedure

Helping Situations

Answer 5

• Dropping a pen whilst walking (400+ times)
• Dropping a pile of magazines whilst walking with a heavy limp and wearing a clearly visible leg brace (Nearly 500 times)
• Act like a blind person needing help to cross the road, wearing dark glasses and carrying white canes (Nearly 300 times)

Question 6

Procedure

Data Collection

Answer 6

The confederates recorded helping in the three scenarios in city centre areas on clear days during main business hours (e.g. 9-5)

The helping scenarios were not done in front of people who were less than 17 years old or people who might not be fully capable of helping or expected to help e.g. because they were physically disabled or carrying a heavy package

Question 7

Findings

Initial Results

Answer 7

• There was considerable variation was found between cultures in helping behaviour
• The most helpful city was Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (93% helping rate)
• The least helpful city was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (40% helping rate)
• Overall, a city’s helping rate was relatively stable across the three measures of helping behaviour

Question 8

Findings

Correlation Results

Answer 8

• No correlation between population size and level of helping
• No correlation between collectivism and helping
• There was a trend towards highest helping when pace of life was slower (slower walking speed) but this was not significant
• Purchasing power parity correlated significantly both with overall level of help and help given in the blind man scenario (countries where people earned less were more likely to offer help)
• No difference found between males and females on level of helping
• The 4 Latin American countries along with Spain were above the mean in overall helping levels when compared to the other countries in the study (Simpatia countries = 82.87% help rate / Non-simpatia countries = 65.87% help rate)

Question 9

Conclusions

Answer 9

• Level of help offered to someone in need does vary across different cultures
• This is related to the wealth of the cultures (cities with lower economic wealth tend to be more helpful)
• Simpatia cultures (Latin American, Spain) are also more helpful